Comments on: La Zampogna

By: David

David — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:47:59 +0000

Josephine,
That’s a very nice last name to have. Certainly somewhere in your family history there was a zampognaro. If you tell me what part of Italy your Zampogna name came from I can tell you rather precisely what type of Zampogna your ancestor would have played.

Also, I don’t know where you people are located, but this October in Las Vegas there is an Italian American Folk Music Conference. I will be giving two separate zampogna (and organetto) workshop demonstrations. Here is the website:
http://www.celebrationofitaly.org

By: Serena

Serena — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:36:53 +0000

Salve Josephine, It would be really interesting to explore your family tree, do you have a musical background yourself?

Serena

By: Josephine

Josephine — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:43:12 +0000

A very fascinating page thank you for putting it together. My last name is Zampognaand now finally have the background knowledge to my name . i will definetly visit the museo di Zampognaonmy next trip to Italy.

By: U Ciarameddaru

U Ciarameddaru — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:04:01 +0000

Cara Serena,
I am one of only a handful of Americans who play this instrument (there are a few others who have them hanging on the wall…). I play a variety of zampogna with single reeds from Eastern Sicily (Catania) as well as another variety with double reeds from the province of Salerno in Campania. I have relatives in both of these arias and personally know many bagpipe makers and folk musicians who play not only the zampogna but many other fascinating and unknown musical instruments such as the chitarra battente, lira calabrese, tamborello, organetto (which I also play…), friscalettu, marranzanu, etc. etc. Sadly, Italian folk music has been lost amongst Italian Americans and we only think of obnoxious 40’s Italian-American pop songs when we think of “Italian Music” while in reality there is a growing resurgence of interest in Italian folk music taking place in Southern Italy and there are many music festivals including a Zampogna festival in Scapoli Italy the last weekend of July, which I attended last summer (there are other Zamp festivals as well in other areas).
Regarding the word Soffietto, it simply comes from the word “soffiare” meaning “to blow.” The word for bellows is “Mantice.”
In Sicily the dialectical word for zampogna is “ciaramedda.” And someone is who plays it is a “ciarameddaru” - hence my screen name here

If you have any other questions about the Zampogna or Italian folk music please feel free to ask,
Daviduzzu “u ciarameddaru”

By: Serena

Serena — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:10:36 +0000

Salve U Ciarameddaru,

Thank you for your interesting contribution to my blog, I wanted to write a bit about La Zampogna because a bagpipe is not something that most people usually associate with Italy, and I find it’s tradition and construction technique fascinating. Are you a musician by any chance? As you can tell from my mistake about the soffietto I am not, my husband is a guitarist but knows nothing about wind instruments. Now that you mention it I realise that obviously La Zampogna doesn’t have a bellows, I just used the translation of soffietto in my Italiano/Inglese dictionary which only gives ‘bellows’ I must admit that I was a bit confused about this, so thanks for clarifying. I wonder why it is called a soffietto though?

A presto, Serena

By: U Ciarameddaru

U Ciarameddaru — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:58:06 +0000

Thanks for informing people about this wonderful instrument. Depending on how you count them there are about 10 different types of zampogne found throughout Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Calabria and Sicily. Interestingly, Puglia doesn’t have a traditional bagpiping tradition (with some minor exceptions). There are actually at least 3 different types of single reeds zampogne - The Surdulina, like you mentioned, plus a pipe found in Eastern Sicily and Southern Calabria locally known as “ciaramedda,” as well as another single reed pipe found in Southern Calabria called “a moderna.” I have to correct one other mistake, you labeled the “soffietto” as bellows. In fact there are no modern zampogne that are bellows blown (however there are surviving diagrams of a bellows blown Italian bagpipe from the 1500s). The “soffietto” is simply the blowpipe in which the piper blows into to inflate the bag. And for your vegan readers, I’m sorry to say that the trend of using a synthetic bag is almost exclusive to the Scapoli tradition, and most other pipers prefer using the traditional goat skin (Sheep is almost never used).
In response to the guy wanting to know if Italian pipes are different than Scottish the answer is a resounding YES. The main thing that sets Italian pipes apart from other European pipes is that Italian pipes have two chanters which gives them the ability to harmonize with themselves as well as create complex poly-rhythms. My biased opinion is that they sound MUCH more pleasing as well ; )

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:53:52 +0000

I enjoy your etymologies, explanation of word origins.

By: Rollando Spadaccini

Rollando Spadaccini — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:43:41 +0000

Wow! I listened to some of the samples from the album “Bag pipes of the World.” Interesting to say the least. (laughing) Unless it is my hearing aid, only bag pipes from European countries sounded the best. Recorded music is only as good as the recording. I never had sat through a whole album of bag pipe music. So, I am not sure I can now. A little bit goes a long way. I’m more into opera, many, but not all.

By: Serena

Serena — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:14:32 +0000

Ciao Rollando, If you do a search on the internet you will find sound samples of various types of bagpipes. E.g. you could do a search for Zampogna+wav or Zampogna+sound sample. Here is a link to an interesting site that seems to cover most types of bagpipe: http://www.hotpipes.com/main.html
From what I know the Irish or Ulien pipes are played by filling a bellows-type bladder with the elbow. They have a larger tonal range than Scottish pipes and don’t usually have drone pipes.

By: Rollando Spadaccini

Rollando Spadaccini — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:17:59 +0000

I was not aware that the Italians had bagpipes. How does this compare with the Scottish or Irish bagpipes? Which has better tonal and sound qualities?